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India

India's new identification policy will amass the world's largest biometric database. The plan's stated objectives are to improve social welfare by giving away identity numbers to all citizens. This scheme is intended to help integrate people into the economy by attaching these ID numbers to bank accounts and streamlining the delivery of government services. India's Unique ID (UID) program and National Population Register (NPR) programs are working in tandem to collect biometric data, with a goal of issuing unique identification numbers for every citizen by June of 2013. Delhi-based NGOs have condemned the UID program as an affront to civil liberties that violates citizens' basic constitutional rights to privacy. And India's parliament rejected a bill associated with UID based on concerns about security, data theft, and the fact that that a national data protection law has yet to be enacted. Read more about biometrics in India.

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